Letters

Dear Ms Kyriakides,

New research by Gregor Kasprian et al.1 reveals that consumption of alcohol even in low to moderate amounts during pregnancy can change the baby’s brain structure and delay brain development. Fetal MRI scans were made of 24 fetuses with a known alcohol exposure. Seventeen out of the 24 mothers drank less than one alcoholic drink per week and still harm could be observed in the fetuses.

Exports of banned hazardous chemicals: time to put an end to double standards

1. Hazardous chemicals, banned at a domestic level in order to protect human health and the environment, are currently produced and exported by EU countriesto third countries where regulations are generally weaker.

Dear Ms. Kyriakides,

Dear Members of the Appeal Committee,

We, the undersigned organisations, strongly condemn the attacks to weaken the ambition of the proposal for a Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products Regulation (SUR) and to delay its adoption. This piece of legislation is crucial to implement the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, as well as the Zero Pollution Action Plan, and is therefore key to delivering on the objectives of the Green Deal.

16 organisations across Europe including environmental and health associations call on the national governments represented in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF committee) to vote in favour of the adoption of this Implementing Regulation (version submitted to the public consultation) at the next meeting scheduled in December 2022.

Dear President von der Leyen, 

We, the undersigned civil society organisations, are writing to throw our full support behind this Commission’s core commitment to laying the foundations of an EU food system transition to sustainability. We urge you to remain strong in the face of growing (geo)political pressures and attacks on the Farm to Fork Strategy, and to come forward with the legislative framework for Sustainable Food Systems (FSFS), the Strategy’s flagship initiative, as planned for 2023.

After a high-level meeting last week, we, representatives of civil society & Indigenous Peoples organizations, urgently call on the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to end its existing agreement with CropLife International (CLI), to publicly clarify the nature of its ties with the pesticide industry, and to subject these ties to greater transparency and accountability. 

Dear Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen,

(Cc. Vice-President Timmermans),

The EU being an important member of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), we are writing to you concerning the unacceptable partnership that FAO has established with CropLife International, the umbrella organisation of the world's biggest pesticide companies.

Dear Commissioner Kyriakides,